That's a good question, Landmark. From what I know, in 9.3.1, I don't think that is possible. However, you can add the layer numerous times and define each one differently so that it shows the polygons you want and then order the defined layers in the order that you need them to show. Just an idea...

If you are displaying your big and small polygons in different categories, you can use the advanced display properties to make sure they're displayed in the desired order (layer properties, symbology tab, click on "Advanced" in the lower right corner, then give each layer its appropriate rank in the display order, check the "display using these settings" checkbox and click ok).

Alas, if all your polygons are displayed in the same way, the big ones will mask the small ones, unless you manage to change their order in the dataset, which is not that simple... Unfortunately this also applies when using transparencies, that is the area within a big polygon that's also covered by a smaller polygon will not display in a stronger colour than the area only covered by a single polygon layer... Suggested workaround: If you can, choose a symbology that consists of (quite elaborate, if desired) borders with no fills.

If they are not meant to be differently coloured you could just unique value them on area, theme all the same and then advanced>symbol levels and set them in order of area. If they need to be themed differently, another option would be to use some process to find all your overlapping smaller polygons and use Advanced drawing option to mask out these areas from the main polygons layer.

Hello, sorry for my bad level of english, maybe some words are wrong, I will try use a translater for verify my text.

I have the same problem that Landmark but I can't use the function "display order" because I want to see another variable to the color of the polygon and in the function "display order" only can order polygons trough the variable defined in the simbology.

Can someone help me with any solution ?

Maybe I need a sript for order the table before that I made the polygons and change the IDObject... Where can I find this sript?

Dodgiest work around I can think of would be to create multiple layers of the same shapefile and hide the larger polygon in the layer which above the other one.Obviously requires alot of tweaking but it's something I need to do alot with Excel tables when they don't want to display properly after displaying by different attributes.

This isn't an option for me because I want to make the process as quickly and independently as be possible. I could add another lines to the script that I've done to generate polygons, but can not think of what may be the script for this, I don't know ...

You can sort the features by their shape field, in descending order.This will force larger polygons to be drawn before smaller ones.Sort is a geoprocessing tool in the Data Management toolbox, General toolset.This method requires that you create a new feature class and do this anytime your data changes (new polygons, edited polygons, etc).